Honda Malaysia Targets To Sell 100,000 Vehicles In 2017
There’s no denying that Honda Malaysia is on a streak despite a challenging market environment in 2016 which saw Total Industry Volume (TIV) fall by 13% year-on-year to below the 600,000 units level for the first time in 6 years. With its well-packaged and priced offerings, Honda Malaysia exceeded its target, selling 91,830 vehicles in 2016, which is a 15.8% share of the market. This is the 2nd highest “country market share” for Honda globally.
This also puts Honda as the top seller in the non-national segment (for the 2nd year running) and in 2nd spot in overall TIV for the first time in Malaysia.
For 2017, Honda Malaysia has lined up at least 4 new model introductions; one of which is the BR-V 7-seater launched in January. In a month, the BR-V has received over 7,000 bookings which is 9 times its projected sales.
Next up is the Honda City facelift which is being teased. Honda Malaysia claims this to have C-segment features at B-segment prices. The 4th generation City is one of Honda Malaysia’s top sellers, with over 100,000 units sold since its launch in 2014 and the facelift version is expected to carry this momentum with its value-added features e.g. Vehicle Stability Assist, available across all variants.
The other new models weren’t revealed but Honda did reveal its power train direction which includes the utilization of the VTEC turbo engine as well as Intelligent Dual Clutch Drive Sport Hybrid transmission in its upcoming models.
Honda Malaysia Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Katsuto Hayashi, said, “Despite most analysts predicting a cautious view, we believe 2017 will have a positive outlook for the automotive industry and market sentiment will gradually improve in this region. With this, we are forecasting the TIV for 2017 to be 600,000 units.”
With this outlook and the momentum Honda Malaysia will carry with the expected 4 models in 2017, the company has set a sales target of 100,000 vehicles which represents an 8% increase from 2016. It’s an optimistic target but Honda Malaysia has exceeded expectations before.
